An insight into some of the greenkeeping practices at Piperdam Golf & Leisure Resort
The first pond at 18 has been finished, this moves the pond to the right, gives it a much better shape. This also allows us to cut the fairway through thus connecting both parts of fairway. The guys are just about finished turfing the slip of fairway.
We have stripped out the trees and built the tee. I've not got a picture of the tee but do have a view from the area during tree removal.
The drains and gravel carpet have been installed. There is still a little shaping to do on the back mounds, this will be done when u get a bone in the ground with the next period of cold weather.
The guys are in working Sunday making use of the good weather. They have now gravelled up the green site @ 14. We will continue to shape up the 17th green and pull the gorse from the landing area at the new par 4 16th.
The green, bunkers and catch basins were firm enough to start cutting in the drains. We have dug the lines and piped today, we will gravel up and put the gravel layer on the green surface tomorrow.
We've cracked on with the ponds on 18, we have completed the first pond and the 2nd Is being worked on. The plan is to close to move the pond to the right so it's more visible. Then put a slip of fairway through the middle to from the existing fairway to the approach.
The weather has turned against us a tad overnight, the new green sites are too wet to work on until they dry a bit. This has given us an opportunity to start the pond projects on 18. We have started on the first pond this will be reshaped and the left hand side will be filled in and the right hand side opened up. This makes it a much nicer feature that will be more visible for your 2nd shot and it gives more room to knock it up the middle.
We're starting to see the shape coming together on the new 17th green by the end of play Tues this should be near enough there.
We have also started turfing the newly reshaped bunkers, we have started on 3.
We also have a demo of a new groundsman turf cutter from double a in cupar. This is a great bit of kit so we're are cutting all turf on the old 5th fairway and what will be the new 6th fairway so we can lift as we need it.
We're well under way shaping the new 14th green, the drot has roughed it out and taken a core out. Now the 360 is going behind fine tuning the shape, mounding, swales and bunkering. We're still driving material into the new 17th isn't needing quite a bit to make up the mounds and banks at the back.
The turf on the 5,6&7 tees has been lifted and we will be scraping out the root zone next week, we will then blend this with a straight sand. This will pad it out and lighten the existing root zone so it drains better.
The new tees for the par 3 5th are starting to take shape. This will play roughly 185 off blacks and 165 of blues the whites will be somewhere between them.
This is the view from what will be the new par 3 14th. We still have the 15th Tees to build and strengthen up the right hand side to protect/shelter the new 14th green.
We have a machine in called a drop, this will shift a lot of soil in a short period of time and shape up the new green and fairway areas on the back 9.
Below is a photo off the area being stripped for a new mens tee on the current par 3 11th. The other photo is off the fairway bunker on the 3rd the turf has been stripped in preparation for reshaping.
We stripped the turf off the fairway bunker at 12. We then added soil and shaped up the surrounds, this will strengthen the bunker up to make it look better but also shed water around so it won't wash out after raining.
The new tees for the par 4 16th are really starting to take shape, we have driven in the subsoil and Kenny the digger driver has shaped them up.
The three photos below in no particular order show the area being stripped for the new fairway bunker complex. Looking at the area to be cut out at the pond in front of the green this is to get material to shape the green site and to also open up the back bank of the pond to give more off a visual impact of the pond. The other photo looks back down the fairway from the back of the green site.
We have started stripping the turf for the new green site at what will be the par 3 17th green. We have also begun to scrape out the area for the new 14th green site. Also we have continued to dig/shape the old tees at the Old 17th and have started to shape the subsoil for the new 16th par 4.
We have started the course redevelopment at Piperdam, there are whole range of works that include 7 new sets off tee's, 2 new green sites, levelling off the 8th fairway, cutting out the holes on the hill and various other jobs on bunkers, fairways and ponds.
The attached photos show the old 17th tees being stripped out and where the new tees will go. There is also a photo off the new green site that will become the par 5 14th being stripped of turf (over the pond at the current 16th)
I will elaborate more on the plans in the coming days and weeks.
